Ohio Department of Education

Education Marketing & Communications

An updated, polished image for a major state government department results in deeper engagement and award-winning design.

CHALLENGEThe Ohio Department of Education needed a strategic design partner to provide creative services. It also had a strong need to redefine its brand identity, raise awareness of its work and its results, and find new and better ways to communicate with its diverse audience mix of parents, schools and school districts, communities, administrators, and legislators. After a careful evaluation process, ODE selected Sanger & Eby to provide these services.

STRATEGYWe first worked closely with the Ohio Department of Education during an initial discovery process that allowed us to gain an intimate understanding of the objectives for the new brand direction.

Based on the brand strategy, we developed a new visual identity for ODE and articulated it across multiple platforms and communications media.

Sanger & Eby collaborated with ODE’s internal development team to create a custom design solution catered to their existing content management system.

The website’s design not only reflected the fresh look and feel of the newly revamped brand, but also emphasized key communication objectives through its intuitive design structure.

It also provided a user interface that accommodated the site’s extensive and complex content library.

The challenge of increasing awareness and engagement for major department initiatives further expanded the scope of work to include the creation of interactive motion graphics.

One such initiative was that of a state-wide transition to a new report card system, which involved a radical system shift that introduced targeted communication objectives for a wide range of target audiences.

In addition to individual department campaigns, Sanger & Eby expanded our contracted partnership in collaborating on design work for individual department programs with subsidiary branding. These projects required respect for individual program branding within the parameters of the parent ODE brand.

Efforts included both implementation of existing program brands—as with the Early Child Ohio program print and motion graphic pieces—and the creation of new program branding and logo designs—as was the case with the Straight A Fund, a new government grant program.

RESULTSThe ODE team has repeatedly expressed high praise for the polished image that Sanger & Eby has created for their department, and additionally has noted extreme satisfaction and positive results from the cohesive, synergetic brand identity that is now well established across all communication platforms.

The website redesign project earned a 2013 Silver Quill award by the International Association of Business Communicators.